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Owls of delight...

Mike Barker
27/01/2021 18:59

I can't remember the last time I saw an owl and then this week, like the proverbial buses, I've seen 2!

The Tawny Owl seems to have a roost just up the road from my house, a tree right on a busy road.

Had to go a little bit further to see the Barn Owl on a very cold late afternoon.  We eventually saw it a long way off but then it seemed to disappear, along with the light which was rapidly fading.

We were on the point of heading home when it re-emerged making a few speculative dives before finally succeeding in catching a small mouse or vole. I was pretty pleased with the photos considering the lack of light and only having a bridge camera. 

  • 04/02/2021 11:33
    Awh!! beautiful,
    hope you continue to be able to keep photographing, and hopefully soon a mate will join,and start a lovely family, this year.

     

  • 04/02/2021 12:31 in reply to PimperneBloke
    Thanks PB. I was pretty jammy with the barn owl in that I've been back since and it's never come as close - also to get it with prey...
  • 04/02/2021 14:28
    Lovely Mike, well caught.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • 04/02/2021 14:30 in reply to Mike Barker
    These are cracking Mike, when viewed nf full screen, well done.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • 05/02/2021 00:08
    Great photos, Mike, thanks for posting them and as you've been told, a lot of us are green with envy. Hope you can continue to add more photos in the future because I am becoming comfortable with being green (and my name is not even Kermit!)

    Kind regards, Ann

  • 05/02/2021 16:51 in reply to Mike Barker

    You're welcome Mike.

    I hope you don't mind, I do get a little cheeky from time to time, but when you mentioned Mabel, the earworms came alive, and this is what they recalled.....

    "Hello Mabel, are you able to come out today?

    It's a lovely day, won't you come and stay?…"
    Hello Mabel Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band
    Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band only had one hit, "I'm The Urban Spaceman" in 1968....
    With that, I'll crawl quietly back in my box.....

    Mike

    Flickr: Peak Rambler

  • 06/02/2021 13:16

    LOL Dave !!!! love the restaurant comment ha ha ! It's the same when I went in to a Chinese laundry whilst living overseas and asked for special textile finish to the dry-cleaning, asking for "special finish" to which the lady replied....... yes, yes, 3pm tomorrow ;)

    _________________________________________________________________________

    Regards, Hazel 

  • 06/02/2021 13:35
    I don't think i've seen more than three owls in the wild in my life!!!

    The Barn owl shots are great - You must be a very cool customer! I doubt if I would have had the presence of mind to use the camera - I would have just stood there gawking!

    A barn owl does have a lovely wing shape in flight doesn't it?

    Good going. You've motivated me to keep my eyes peeled more!
  • 06/02/2021 18:44
    I can only remember seeing 4 types of Owls in the wild, but those sightings do stick with you. I hope one day to add to that number.
    Apologies, Mike, because the rest of this comment is not relevant to your fab Owl pics, but to an incidental topic touched upon since.
    Dave, what part of the Jura are you in, please? (doesn't matter how it is pronounced--might be some time before we can visit!) But one of my Great-grandfathers, most or possibly all of his siblings, and his parents emigrated from Hölstein in Switzerland, roughly 12 miles outside of Basel, in 1881. They were all German-speaking, I presume it was Swiss-German, but do not know. An older sister and her husband had emigrated a bit earlier from a place only a short distance on the other, the German, side of Basel, and then the rest of the family followed her. I just googled Hölstein and the population in March of 2020 was 2,569, 14.1 percent of which were resident foreign nationals. The population according to wikipedia in 1880, the year before they left, ("Interesting, but I wonder if it is true?" is my usual thought when consulting the internet) was 560 and it had been slowly dropping for the 30 years before that.

    Kind regards, Ann

  • 08/02/2021 16:11
    Lol, Dave. Didn't know that reggae needed curing--learn something every day here on the forum. Look forward to world peace. Oh, and the birdie pics, too, of course.

    Kind regards, Ann